Making Connections Everywhere

Dwight Dunston ’10 has taken the traditional
path of an English major with an emphasis in poetry and pointed it toward the worlds of
hip-hop and indie music,
where the poetics now flow on stage under the name Sterling Duns, with his
band, Futur Mama. When he’s not busy pursuing music, Dunston is the assistant
director of admission at Philadelphia’s Friends’ Central School, where
he also attended high school. Read on for more about Dunston’s Dickinson days, how
he gives back and what he hopes his music can do for his audience.

How does Dickinson’s “useful education” apply to what you do, both at
work and with your music?

At
Dickinson, I spent a lot of time reading and digesting ideas and experiences inside and outside the classroom. I learned techniques about how
to synthesize these experiences and put them on paper to make them accessible
and relatable to readers. As an instrumentalist and hip-hop artist now,
I’m doing the same thing in writing songs and trying to get people to
understand where I’m coming from but also to see a bit of themselves in my
work.

Dickinson also
nurtured my compassion for people from all walks of life, because I was
rooming, running track, doing class projects and traveling with people from
very different upbringings than my own. These experiences certainly have had an
impact on me at work, where I get to meet people from all different walks of
life daily.

What jumps
out as a great memory from your time at Dickinson?

Definitely getting the chance to go abroad my junior
year to Norwich, England. One of my favorite memories was visiting a friend on the Bologna, Italy,
program and street performing in the Piazza Maggiore. We got to meet a lot of
awesome people this way and even had some people join us for music as well.

Also, senior year, winning the Triple Crown on the men’s
side (the Centennial Conference cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field championships) for the first time in
Dickinson history was an unbelievable experience. Everyone worked really hard
all year, but more than that, we all just clicked and supported
each other in ways on and off the track like never before.

How did you get interested in what you’re
working on musically now?

I really
got interested in playing live music my first year at Dickinson. I’ve had a
passion for hip-hop since I was little, but it was certainly nurtured at
Dickinson. On the weekends, I would get together with friends who also had an
affinity for hip-hop and spend hours putting on instrumentals and making up
rhymes. And the next thing I knew, we were making mixtapes and music videos and
performing in Philly, New York City and D.C. I even got to perform in
Los Angeles and in Tel Aviv, Israel.

How would you sum up your musical ethos?

In
everything I do with music, I just want to encourage and promote positivity
through my words, through the beats, through the guitar. I want people to
listen to my story and feel inspired to follow their dreams, to listen to my
music and feel empowered to become the best version of themselves that they can
possibly be. I want people to move around a little bit, bop their head. But I
also want to challenge them to learn and grow and live big, big
lives. Because I think we all deserve this.

What is the most challenging part of your
life right now?

Finding
time to do everything! I have a wonderful job working in admissions and
coaching track and field and doing some diversity work at Friends’ Central School,
which I love. I’ve got a few different music projects going on at the moment. I’m also involved with a few different community groups
here in Philly geared toward equity and social justice, and I have friends and
family to see, concerts to go to—the day gets packed.

But I’m
grateful for everything the day brings, the bright spots and the challenges.

How do you
stay involved with or support Dickinson? And why do you think it’s important?

By being in touch
with former professors and coaches and just keeping up-to-date with the
happenings on the Web site. I encourage all students to stay connected, because
I think each Dickinsonian can think of one person still at Dickinson who had an
impact on them, and I guarantee that person would love to hear from you.

Also, although I can’t give as much as I someday want
to, I give back financially to Dickinson because I personally would not have
been able to attend the school and have the experiences I did were it not for
someone else giving back.

I think it’s important to support Dickinson because
this place and the people connected with it gave me so much—more than words can
really describe. The things that I do to support Dickinson are just little gestures
compared to all that it has given me, but it’s important to give back in some
way or another.

What do you like best about making music?

The ability
it has to connect people. It gets people zoned in on the same wavelength, and
that’s a powerful thing. I also like getting the chance to meet people after
shows and meeting other musicians and hearing about their musical and life
journeys.

I currently
work at a job where I get to meet new people almost every day, and it’s
something that I really, truly enjoy, because we all have unique stories to
tell. We are just figuring out the best ways to tell them. My way is music, and
I’m the only one who can tell my story and share my reality, and I’m grateful
for all the tools and experiences Dickinson gave me to help me to tell my
story.